What's wrong with his Eye?

[TokayBlueTongue]

I just received my baby Indonesian blue tongue skink yesterday from outback reptiles yesterday and I notice at first he seemed to have a little bit of irritation in his left eye, his right is fine. He's ate a little so far and seems to be doing well, he is also CH if that matters. So is it truly any kind of problem or am I being overly nervous?

[Dakota]

I don't think BTs can ever be "CH".

Could you post a picture? Eye irritation can mean a number of things. Will help to see what you are describing.

[TokayBlueTongue]

Sorry about that my phone wasn't letting me upload pictures. This picture was taken about 10 minutes ago, not sure if its just because of how he was kept before I got him or something else. And by CH I meant born from wild caught parents, farmed in Indonesia.

[Dakota]

To be more specific, you have a Halmahera. They occur in the North Maluku province of Indonesia. The eye irritation looks as though proper humidity levels were neglected. Halmaheras do not thrive in low humidity. Being found predominantly in dense rainforests, humidity needs to be very high. I keep mine at 70%+. You can achieve this by using a substrate that does well with holding humidity. Substrates include orchid bark, cypress mulch, etc. Make absolutely sure you do not use Aspen or carefresh.

You may also want to check for a respiratory infection. Look for excessive watery eyes, bubbles in eyes, prolapsed nictitating membrane, crackly breathing, nasal discharge, etc. Low humidity is often the harbinger of respiratory issues.

He doesn't look too bad, though. You may want to bathe him or rub him down with some warm water to make sure there is no retained shed. Moisten a paper towel and wipe down the eyes to make sure no shed is stuck there, as well.

Good luck. Halmaheras are a needy species, and do terribly if something is wrong. That is why I don't consider them a good "beginner" Bluetongue species due to their fragility. However, they do awesome once everything is correct. They are a rewarding species to keep.

[TokayBlueTongue]

wow I actually wanted to get a halamhera but couldn't find any available so that's sort of good news, I really like the way their pattern/coloration looks. thank you for the diagnosis I was honestly fearing it was something worse.

[TokayBlueTongue]

So its been 5 days and his eye has appeared to have only gotten worse and seems to be completed crusted over. His other eye is perfectly fine and he is not displaying any signs of a respiratory infection. I have only really handled him just yesterday and have let him been since then. I tried giving tried wiping down his eye today but didn't really know what to do so I just put him back in his enclosure. Does it seem to be a stuck shed or something else? And I know this sounds stupid but how exactly do you wipe down a skinks eye? Most of my experience with reptiles is with snakes and they are quite different since they don't have eyelids and I've never really dealt with a possible stuck eye shed before. Here is a picture of how the eye looks now

[Dakota]

Bacterial respiratory infections are often the harbinger of eye issues, as well. One of my Halmaheras actually are just now recovering from one. It only affected one of his eyes, like yours. How is the nictitating membrane? Is is swollen? Fold a paper towel into about a 4" x 4" square. Squirt saline solution on one side, and rub the eye. Try to gently get the crust off once it has softened. Last thing you need to do is let it build up. Remove everything in the tank. Put paper towel down, a box hide, and a water bowl. The crust is likely where she is trying to rub her eye due to it irritating her. Take her to the vet, and see what he/she says. She probably developed it during shipping or before. Once they get it, it is hard to get rid of it without some medication. If it is a RI, the vet will likely prescribe Bayril/Enrofloxacin. If the eye issue continues, you may need to use some ophthalmic triple antibiotics.

I would take her to the vet ASAP, because she will soon rub her eye lids away if this problem is not fixed. I also found the eye irritation went down when I took them to the bathroom with me while I showered or ran the shower. Put them low, so they don't get overwhelmed with the heat.

Good luck. Keep us updated, please.

ETA: Vera, my rescued Halmahera is the one that gave it to Riley. I neglected to treat it, because she had no signs of RI, other than the eye issues like your little one. She had no nasal discharge, no crackly breathing, etc. Just three days on the antibiotics, it was like she was a new lizard. She could open her eyes perfectly fine, no crust, nothing.

[TokayBlueTongue]

So I took your advice and immediately took him to the vet yesterday. There the vet was able to diagnose the eye problem as being conjunctivitis and also a past eye injury and was able to get off some of the crust on his eye herself. She gave me a 10 day ointment to put on his/her eye twice a day and she said it will clear up in about 10 days. Two other things she noticed though that caught her attention was she said he was underweight due to the presence of the hip bones and spine so she recommended I feed him something a little more high in fat/more variety to help build up lean muscle mass. She also noticed he has a scar on his back from where another skink had grabbed him though this had healed over. She said that it could lead to some problems shedding so I just need to stay on top of that. My little skink has definitely been to hell and back from what she told me with the eye injury, being grabbed by another skink, and then also having a small scar on his leg. My only questions now are how do I keep up humidity in a tank with paper towel substrate and how can I help him gain some weight because he doesn't have quite a monstrous appetite yet, like he will eat out of tongs but just now go run over to the food bowel and eat all his food. Here are also some updated pictures of him already looking better.

[Susann]

What a cutie! Glad you've got him on the road to improving and that he looks better already.
To raise humidity you can:
1) add another water bowl and place it as close to the hot spot in the tank without taking away his basking spot. I usually say add another because some skinks just don't like drinking warm water, and where he needs to stay hydrated, I like having fresh water on both ends of a sick skink's tank.
2) you can go buy a cheap sponge-holder with suction cups, attach it to the wall under the heat lamp (or whatever you use), and every day take the sponge, rinse it out with hot water, get it just to where it's not dripping too much, and keep it in the holder. It actually can add quite a bit of humidity to the air in the tank.
3) you can get a humidifier. Either a cheap Walmart room humidifier and aim it at the tank is it's an open or screen top, or buy something that takes the humidity right into the tank, like a ReptiFogger or a MistKing. Do some research on reptile humidifiers.
4) you can add a humid hide to his tank. Just take any plastic container with a top, cut an opening, put some large rocks in the bottom of it (to keep it from tipping over and to keep some water (or collect the dripping water from the moss) in the bottom to add extra humidity in the container), then soak some moss (you can buy moss for reptiles in pet stores) and put a thick layer on top of the rocks.

To improve his hydration you can also soak him daily. This actually aids greatly with the eye problem. Take a tub, or use your bathtub as long as you wash any soap residue out first, and put enough warm water in so he can easily reach the bottom and relax, and keep him in there for 15-20 minutes or so. You may need to change out the water a couple times to keep it warm.
After each soak, wipe the eye and put the ointment on.

You can run these suggestions by your vet's office first to make sure your vet is OK with you trying them.

Good luck, and we're here if you need any help

[Dakota]

Wow, conjunctivitis. Not surprised. Be glad it isn't a tedious RI. Is the ointment Terramycin?

[TokayBlueTongue]

Yup